San Diego County, San Diego Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Is a UV blacklight still useful, exterior-wise, if it rains after the rodents leave their urine stains? I am in the process of performing exterior maintenance to better exclude my roof rats. 1) I have a 25 year old cedar shake roof in San Diego California with openings under each shake along the rake edge of the roof at the gable ends of my house. There's no drip edge, i.e. under the shakes I have roofing paper (now somewhat curled) that runs more or less up to and rests right atop the fascia board. Because I have skip sheathing, and since the cross section of a shake is a wedge that is up to one inch at the upper, thick end, this appears to create many huge entry points along the rake edges even though the sheathing is rabbeted into the fascia board. As a result, I'm thinking of getting a UV blacklight to use outside the house to sleuth for urine stains along the upper edge of the gable end shakes and fascia boards. My question is, how easily does the winter rain wash away the urine, rendering this a pointless exercise? 2) I noticed a new product called "rat-out gel" and was thinking of applying it along the rake edges mentioned above. Or, maybe I should just buy many rolls of X-Clude and use that instead. Or maybe both. Any comment? Thanks very much for your website, Doug
My response: First off, I do not have experience using UV lights to detect rat urine. But I do suspect that rain will severely limit the effectiveness of this approach. I have never heard of Rat-Out Gel or XClude, but I typically stick to physical barriers rather than repellent type devices. If your roof makes this impossible, you might have a tough time keeping the rats out.
San Diego Rat Control Tip of The Week
Different Rat Traps That Are Humane
A rat infestation is a big problem for almost every household. If you are having the same issues, you need to understand the fact that you are not alone in this problem. Although, you need to take quick removal actions because the rats won't leave unless you make them.
To help you achieve this, we will be sharing different rat traps that are humane that you can use to remove rats from your home. With the following traps, you won't have to bother about rats causing a nuisance in your home anymore.
Glue Boards
Glue traps are perfect for rats nesting in an enclosed area. These traps are designed with plastic and a semi-solid liquid that is believed to glue rats to its surface when they try to walk on it. To use a glue board, all you need to do is place it along the routes of the rat. The trap will intercept the rat's path and it will be trapped in the process.
The only issue with the use of this trap is that you will have to keep inspecting it from time to time in order to dispatch the rat from the board when it finally is trapped.
Fenn Traps
Fenn traps are designed for use in tunnels. The design of this trap makes it possible for it to trap rats only and prevent interaction with other non-target species. It's a special mechanism that makes it possible to kill the rat humanely by constricting and suffocating it.
Snap Traps
Snap traps are one of the most commonly used rat traps and are most suitable if you want to trap rats in your attic and other places in your home with limited access. It also kills rats instantly and is very effective in removing rats.
